New Orleans Mayor visits Cuba

"The mayor of New Orleans flew to Cuba Friday on a mission to study the island's respected disaster preparedness methods in another sign of easing diplomatic relations.

The visit comes a day after President Barack Obama promised New Orleans that the government would never repeat the "failure of government" seen after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the jazz city in 2005.

Ray Nagin is the first US mayor to make a diplomatic visit to Cuba in 50 years, his office said.

"We were victims of a tragedy. Now we want to be a model for response and preparedness," said spokeswoman Ceeon Quiett.

The State Department gave approval to the mission because Cuba has been recognized internationally as a leader in emergency management, Quiett said.

New Orleans is still recovering from Katrina, which smashed levees and swamped 80 percent of the metropolitan area, leaving tens of thousands homeless.

The delegation, which includes a top state legislator, will also be meeting with Cuba's Ministry of Exterior Relations and the Ministry of Culture before returning on Thursday..."

Quiett seems to be an approriate name for the person organising this visit and the lack of coverage in the media.

Cuba has had 4 hurricanes stronger than Katrina since New Orleans was devastated costing billions in damages but zero in lives and displacement of the people.

Comments

Submitted by Fidel on October 17, 2009 - 5:36am.

Viva La Revolucion!

Submitted by M. Spector on October 17, 2009 - 11:57am.

a lonely worker wrote:

Cuba has had 4 hurricanes stronger than Katrina since New Orleans was devastated costing billions in damages but zero in lives and displacement of the people.

Well, actually seven people died, and 200,000 were homeless for a period of time. But unlike the US, which still has hundreds of thousands of internally displaced refugees from Katrina, the Cubans made homeless have all been provided for,

Submitted by a lonely worker on October 17, 2009 - 10:21pm.

Thanks for the correction MS. I forgot about those casualties which though small in number are still a tragic loss.

Still in the context of hurricanes where deaths are routinely counted in the hundreds its an incredible achievement of the care Cuba provides its citizens in light of the absoultely devastating hurricanes it endured. The fact that all Cubans were re-housed almost immediately puts our greed first society to shame.

Submitted by M. Spector on October 17, 2009 - 10:26pm.

Indeed it does.

Submitted by M. Spector on October 23, 2009 - 3:07am.

Quote:

Visiting New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin praised Cuba's disaster response system on Tuesday, acknowledging that the islands's socialist authorities "do a much better job than we do."

Mr Nagin, who arrived in Cuba last Friday along with 15 officials from police, fire and port agencies, has met Cuban civil defence authorities and seen presentations on how the whole island mobilises during disasters....

Mr Nagin acknowledged that "one of the biggest weaknesses we had during Katrina is it wasn't clear who was the top authority.

"Here in Cuba you don't have that problem. The government says: 'This is what we're doing, these are the resources we are going to deploy,' and it pretty much happens."

In Cuba, Revolutionary Defence Committees organise communities at neighbourhood level, providing social services as well as helping with evacuations.

"They do a much better job than we do on knowing their citizens at a very, very detailed level, block by block," Mr Nagin declared.

Source